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Cloning As humanity progresses, more and more technologies are becoming available. However, while some of the technologies are deployed without any ethical considerations, there are some technologies that involve ethical dilemmas as well as high extent of public awareness. New reproductive technologies, such as cloning, are the technologies that arise a wide array of legal controversies. As the mentioned above technology have drawn the most public attention, within the course of this research we will discuss the legal implications of using this technology.
In the debate over cloning, there are those who say that the scientific benefits and advances gained from cloning are beneficial to society. Currently, the situation in some of the US states is as follows: Five states (Arkansas, Iowa, Michigan, North Dakota and Virginia) ban human cloning for any purpose. Three other states (Louisiana, Rhode Island and California) ban cloning for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy. In addition, at least one state (South Dakota) clearly bans use of any human embryos (including cloned human embryos) in research that could harm them. (1) Since ethics is not an exact science, whereas cloning is, ethics has the tendency to generate more controversies than answers.
The ethical issue of cloning should not arise at all at this stage, because society is not there yet to venture in such a task without knowing all of the ramifications. The issue, though, should not be left unattended either. It will be important for cloning to be researched under a well-monitored environment. Unethical concerns at one time could later on become ethical only if society could justify the need to have use for them.
What moral considerations deserve our attention and which are the most important in responding to a particular issue? These are questions that arise with every new controversy. Whether one's ethical beliefs come from theological commitments, philosophical arguments, or from true-life experiences, all voices should be welcome to the conversation. While tolerance is a widely accepted virtue, it is important to remind ourselves that it is built on the idea of mutual respect and the capacity to accept whenever possible, the moral worth of others with whom one may disagree. Tolerance means both agreeing to disagree and accepting the challenge of sustaining a community where moral authority will, to some extent, always be contested. Many people have different views of what is and what is not natural.
Out of one thousand people polled, forty-eight percent believe that cloning is unnatural. Since most people have visions of Dr. Frankenstein creating life from inanimate matter they are not getting all the facts straight. Cloning creates life from life. The true definition of cloning is the production of one or more individual living things that is genetically identical to the living thing that was cloned. All political bets are off if a cloned birth is announced, several Hill observers said.
A group of scientists related to the Raelian religion, which teaches that humans are clones of extraterrestrials, has said it will deliver the world's first human clone before the end of this year. (2) Another issue that has come up about whether it is ethical to clone is the question of how a cloned person would act. Since a cloned person would be an exact replica of the original person he or she would be very similar physically and should be alike mentally. On the other hand his or her personality comes from genes, social influences, and how they were brought up. Because of this the cloned child's personality would be completely different from the original person, unless he or she was raised in the exact same environment. Genes are not destiny, but that will not stop people from thinking that human cloning need to be stopped before it starts. However, since it can not be proven that genes are not destiny, people are convinced that cloning will produce an appalling creature of destruction.
Some of the most commonly cited ethical and moral arguments against human cloning seem to originate from religious perspectives. Politicians and scientists can even make these religious arguments with religious sympathies. Many of these religious philosophies teach, for example, that human life is unique and special and should be created, determined and controlled only by their deity's perspectives. Numerous religions believe in the existence of, and in the individuality of, a human soul. Some people have questioned about whether or not a cloned embryo would have a soul. A soul is colorless, weightless, and has never been detected by any and may not even exist.
But it is a concern to believers. Christians, for example, will be concerned about whether it will be possible to clone the human soul, along with the human. If it is possible to clone the soul, what will this mean? In contrast, if a person is cloned, but not their soul, what will this mean?
Can a clone without a soul be destroyed and not offend moral or religious beliefs? Cloning will be defined by many as humans assuming the powers, the providence, and the jurisdiction their deities or other spiritual powers of their supernatural universe. However, enforcing a modified cloning ban would be problematic and pose certain law enforcement challenges that would be lessened with an outright ban on human cloning. (3) The biggest worry of cloning is that it took two hundred and seventy seven attempts to create Dolly. Some of those failures resulted in defective lambs that died quickly after birth.
Another controversial issue about cloning is the fact that Dolly was conceived using an ewe's egg and only a cell from another ewe's body. It is noteworthy that no semen from a ram was involved. However, Dolly, the clone has the same status as her identical twin already has, because they both have originated from a single fertilized egg. This technique could also be used to create a "perfect human, " or one with above normal strength and sub-normal intelligence.
If the techniques were perfected in humans, and came into general usage, there would be no genetic need for men. This would mean that all males would be allowed to die off. A few people have expressed concern about the effects that cloning would have on relationships. For example, a child born from DNA cloning of his father would be, in effect, a delayed twin of that parent. Some fear that this may cause disturbances in the family, like a wife seeing an exact copy of her husband growing up and maturing. Or it may help since the father would understand some of the behaviors of his exact copy, his son.
One of the other cloning problems is that it may reduce genetic variability. Producing many clones runs the risk of creating a population that is entirely the same. This population would be susceptible to the same diseases, and one disease could devastate the entire population. One can easily picture humans being wiped out by a single virus, however, less drastic, but more probable events could occur from a lack of genetic diversity.
For example, if a large percentage of a nation's cattle are identical clones, a virus, such as a particular strain of mad cow disease, could effect the entire population. The result could cause catastrophic food shortages in that nation. Also, there is a risk of disease transfer between transgenic animals and the animal from which the transgene's were derived from. If a virus infects animal producing drugs in its milk, the animal may transmit the virus to a patient using the drug.
The most problematic issue about cloning legislation is that it cannot include all the aspects of cloning. As President Bush states, Yet a law permitting research cloning, while forbidding the birth of a cloned child, would require the destruction of nascent human life. Secondly, anything other than a total ban on human cloning would be virtually impossible to enforce. (4) Thus, it is not that simple to pass the laws that would clearly regulate all the numerous aspects of human cloning as well as gene engineering at large, and many observers agree with President Bush on that issue. Words Count: 1, 351. Bibliography: web web web web 2002 / 04 / 20020410 - 4.
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Research essay sample on Ban On Human Cloning Exact Copy
